Bryan, Garnier & Co successfully advised Divalto on the opening of its capital to Before, through an owner buy-out (OBO)

Paris, July 12th 2006 – Bryan, Garnier & Co (bryangarnier.com), a pan-European independent investment bank focusing on European growth companies, announced today that its Corporate Finance department successfully advised Divalto, the leading French supplier of ERP solutions to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, on the sale of a majority stake to Before, a French entrepreneurial Private Equity fund, through an owner buy-out (OBO).

Bruno Tourme, Senior Advisor and Head of the Technology Practice at Bryan, Garnier & Co commented: “This operation allows Maurice Vallet, Divalto’s CEO, to realise part of the value he has created with Divalto over the past 24 years. At the same time, by reinvesting a significant portion of his proceeds along with Before, Mr. Vallet ensures the company business continuity and progressive management transmission.” Mr. Vallet commented: “The company will now continue to focus on consolidating its market leading positions in its specialized area, while trying to raise the importance of licence business and continuously improving its operating margins. The arrival of a financial investor will strengthen the company’s financial structure and improve Divalto’s credibility with its clients.”

Furthermore, Before’s strong expertise in the French ERP sector, notably acquired through Generix’s shareholding, will also help Divalto to achieve the implementation of its current strategy.

This transaction constitutes the second M&A mid-market Technology deal led by Bryan, Garnier & Co during the summer of 2006. Previously, Bryan, Garnier & Co successfully advised Galileo Partners, a Private Equity fund, on the sale of Plaut Consulting France to CGI Inc. Together with the Plaut operation, the present transaction illustrates the possibility of a successful dual approach to a company sale via industrial partners on the one hand and investment funds on the other. Such a dual track approach requires particular know-how, combining private equity transaction and classic industrial M&A expertise. This combined expertise, together with the focus on Software & IT Services, constitutes one of Bryan, Garnier & Co’s specific skills, enabling it to bring highly effective liquidity solutions to historical shareholders and management. With these two operations, Bryan, Garnier reinforces its position as a specialist in technology investment banking, in particular in the Software & IT Services sector. Moreover, it proves once again Bryan, Garnier & Co’s ability to close both cross-border and domestic deals.

Bringing strong expertise in specific industry sectors such as Software & IT Services, and providing high-level advice to client companies and their CEOs, as well as to the investor community, are the core focuses of Bryan, Garnier & Co. This has been reinforced with the arrival of Jean-Luc Lénart, former CEO of CCMX (a leading French ERP vendor) and former member of the Executive Committee of ATOS Group, and Bruno Tourme, co-founder and former CEO of Giga Group (now Forrester). Over the past eight years, Bryan, Garnier & Co has supported European growth companies in their Corporate Finance strategies, providing in particular the Technology, Media and Telecom sectors (TMT) with a variety of services ranging from Private Placements, MBOs, M&A and Secondary Offers to IPOs. These operations were carried out for listed and private companies with a broad range of finance structures.